Purpose for Reloading

[Wendyj]

I know we started to save money and found out we shoot a lot more. Accuracy levels increased greatly. Keep adding to the loading room but it's relaxing after a hard days work. Hitting long range targets with your home made recipes are a joy in itself. Just wondered what reason everyone here started loading. Some loads you just can't find in factory either. My 7-08 loves a 160 grain Speer bullet. Have never seen one on a shelf above 140 grain.

[A pause for the COZ]

After I purchased a 357 magnum. I went and purchased a box of ammo for $37 for it.

First words I spoke was.
" Crap the bed... That aint gona work."
Then the hunt began.
Cant say I have saved one cent more than I would have spent had I not taken up loading.
But I can say I can afford to shoot all I want.

[jwrowland77]

I originally started reloading to cut the cost of my hunting rifle, a 7mm Rem Mag. Which I don't shoot often so it has saved me some money.

Another reason I started was to do reduced recoil loads (for a .223. She was extremely small) I had read about for my daughter who was 6 at the time. By doing the reduced recoil loads using H4895, I was able to get her shooting Centerfire and two years after she started she was able to harvest her first deer using her .223 using a full load.


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[Reloader2]

For years I had only one rifle. My father collected guns and did lots of reloading, keeping me supplied with ammo.
On his passing I Inherited several of his guns but passed on the chance to get his reloading equipment.
After I ran out of ammo the reality set in and I started from scratch and learned to do it myself.


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[condor bravo]

Well I don't really recall that it was for making shooting more affordable, but rather that it was just the thing to do. After all how could you go wrong after examining the Herter's reloading catalog with their greater than great advertisements about Model Perfect everything, order out one of each today and if you aren't completely satisfied, etc. All about getting on board and being in good standing with the world. So I did just that and always considered my two massive Model 3 presses at something like $13 and the improved model for $17 to be my best purchases of all times. But the powder measure left some design features to be desired. No complaints however with the balance beam scale. How we long for the good old days with Herter's. You just couldn't wait for your next order to arrive from Waseca, Minnesota. Ditto with their fly tying merchandise prior to becoming absorbed with walnut and blued steel. But it was puzzling whether to order flat or rounded large rifle primers, so got both just to be on the safe side. They did supply primer cups for each with the primer arms.

It's sort of like the mountain, you do it because it's there.

[dahermit]

I started in the middle sixties because I was one of the working poor and could not afford shoot much (even with WWII surplus 9MM ammo). I did not like the price of jacketed 9MM bullets either, so I bought an original Lee Loader (in the Black Red and White cardboard box), and a Lyman single cavity mould and began to cast and handload. I have been doing it ever since.

[jetinteriorguy]

I shoot .41 magnum. Check the price and availability on that sometime.

[BigJimP]

I started aabout 50 - 55 yrs ago...my grandpa taught me ..( and it was cheaper than buying ammo -- and it still is )...but it was also to customize ammo to what you wanted.

Today, I reload because I like it - its part of the gun hobby to me - and I shoot 2 or 3 times as much with the same ammo budget../ but I'd reload even if the cost was a push. Its also part of the gun hobby I have passed down to my kids and now the grandkids ( it makes me the cool grandpa ... )...

[Sevens]

I was in high school and literally dropping by the drug store twice a week looking for the new issue of Guns & Ammo and the more I read, the more I knew I wanted to be a handloader. With money from my first "real" summer job before 11th Grade and leftover paper route money, I bought my first center fire, a S&W 686-3. I think there is a chance I needed that revolver almost as much to handload as to shoot.

My first reloading was actually 20ga for skeet shooting twice a week, but while fun, it was more of a process with very little "art", adjustments or decisions. Loading shotshells on a Mec-650 was a simple matter of dumping the stuff in and pulling a handle.

Loading .38 Special took more human input, seemingly. And I was completely hooked just as soon as I placed shots where I wanted them, from ammo that I made.

[mikld]

Money was the last thing I was thinking about when I started reloading. In the late sixties I got my first centerfire handgun. One time I emptied the cylinder and thought "I wonder if I could use these things for something?" I checked around (I had no friends or acquaintances that shot or reloaded), looke at a few gun magazines and found the term "reloading". I went to a library and looked up cartridge reloading (this was waaay pre-web). I wound up buying a Lee Loader, a pound of Bullseye, 100 CCI primers, and 100 generic lead bullets. I picked up a few cases at the police range I shot at and went from there. I reloaded 38 Specials for 18 months easily and successfully. I branched out to more "sophisticated" equipment and continued, off and on, since then. I have had my lean times and times when I was "flush" but costs were secondary. For almost 40 years I have reloaded because I like reloading. Simple...

[Gunplummer]

I got into reloading because I could form brass for cartridges that were almost impossible to get. I still do not reload everything. There is now some factory ammo you can barely match or even beat by reloading.

[Average Joe]

Because its fun !

[Rifletom]

I just enjoy it. A little piece and quite always works. Nothing like going out to the garage and fartin' around with stuff.

[jmr40]

I used to own a 280. Ammo was hard to find and expensive and I was considering reloading. I ran across a good deal on a used custom 338-06 and had no other real option. While I no longer own either of those, and all of the cartridges I now load for are more common, I still find I can get better quality ammo. I don't really do it to save money. I probably do, but that isn't the primary reason.

[5whiskey]

The gun run of '08 started my reloading career. To be fair I wanted to reload before then, but I just kept putting it off because of start up cost. I started in 2010 when components started to be normal again, thanks to my wife buying my press for my birthday (and in turn being mad that I had to spend another 200 bucks on dies, powder, primers, and projectiles).

I never dreamed of owning any kind of firearm in a more unique caliber. Heck, growing up in a small town where 30-06 is king, .243 winchester was considered exotic. Never mind 7mm-08. Now, I can buy about what I want. Oh, and I can shoot about as much .357 as I want. And I can make match grade rounds for about the price of bulk ammo. Shoot I could shoot 338 lapua for around 1 buck a round if i so desired (instead of 3 or 4). There are tons of reasons to reload. I can shoot more. I can buy guns in calibers that were cost prohibitive before. I enjoy my time at the reloading bench. The number 1 reason is putting rounds I loaded into 1/2moa at 500 yards.

[Chainsaw.]

I had always had just the tiniest curiosity about reloading but never near enough to jump in on my own. Fast forward 15-20 years, a friend from work began to sell off his long passed grandfathers reloading gear. All kinds of stuff, bullets, lead, shotshells, on and on. I purchased a big chunk of the stuff and started sorting through it. One of the items was a cheap little lee press, new now days they are about $30. Well onwards and upwards I went. Several months later he had another big batch of stuff to sell off, "Ill take it all" Grandpa had good taste. So then came my casting obsession. Add to this a love for IDPA and a HUGE savings on ammo and here I am, fully hooked.

[SARuger]

I bought a Savage 340a 30-30 bolt gun last summer and wanted to load some Spitzers for it. I couldn't find anything but ammo suited for tubular mags for the lever guns. So I decided it was time to load my own. I'm now loading 8 calibers, 4 rifle, 4 handgun. Enjoying every minute of it!

[Nick_C_S]

Heck, I can't remember

Ah, I'm pretty sure cost was the primary motivator for me. But I also knew I have the personality/mind-set for loading. In childhood, I spent a lot of time building models (airplanes, ships, cars). Before that, it was LEGO's. I'm just wired for loading ammo.

I spent an afternoon learning how to load from an old guy my brother knew from work. Good guy. Other than that and my Speer #10 loading manual, I was pretty much on my own and self-taught. I remember my first powder purchase was Red Dot, Blue Dot, and Unique. I'm really surprised I never blew up any of my guns with the Blue Dot. A notoriously unforgiving powder that decided to be forgiving enough for me. Still don't know how that happened.

To circle back to the point: it was savings that motivated me toward handloading; but I wouldn't have bothered had I thought I didn't have the mindset for it. I approached it as a craft from the first round.

[salvadore]

I bought a Lee Loader when .44 magnums went to $10.00 for fifty rounds.

[NHSHOOTER]

I had wanted to start reloading for a long time but really had no place close to shoot so I firgured, why reload. Then one day I permission from a local landowner with a sand pit to shoot there. I had just bought a 7-08 and could only find 140gr ammo for it for a premium price. I went to the cabela's website and bought the rcbs starter kit and now I load for 4 calibers and all my rifles shoot moa, and I have even gotten another friend of mine into reloading since he saw and tried my setup..

[Mike / Tx]

For me, just something I grew up with. My pop and uncles would all gather up around a press at one or the others houses back in the late 60's and early 70's and play around with things. We always seemed to have an abundance of milsurp '06 rounds, and 30 Carbine rounds, which when shot we policed up the brass and wiped it up real good with Hoppe's then tossed in an ammo can.

I remember sittin on pop's knee helping him when I was a little fart, handing hm primers or bullets when he loaded them back up. It just progressed from there that it was something to be done.

Now I load for everything. Usually if I am buying a firearm, I have already purchased dies, and whatever else I need to make up some dummy rounds or even loaded rounds before I actually have something to shoot them in.

I know there is a fine line between what I can buy ammo in some calibers for, but with others just like the statement above,

I shoot .41 magnum. Check the price and availability on that sometime.

I shoot the 41, 10mm, 454, heck even 44 magnum or decent 357's have gone through the roof, not to mention you only have a couple of choices when you DO find them. I guess it just isn't in my nature to buy something I can make, and also have on hand when things go squirrely with the rest of the world. I now have three grandsons who have loaded and shot their own ammo with my supervision. I'm hoping that in the distant future they will be able to continue on with what I have kept going as sort of a family tradition.

[rob-c]

I want my wife and i to be able to go shoot when ever we want, after the feel good law of the safe act was passed in ny I really ramped up my reloading inventory. plus I can go mild to wild on my reloads, we handgun hunt with our revolvers and the ammo loaded for hunting is a bit steep..

[Shenna9220]

Searching for loading info for the .327 federal is what got me to this forum. I load that an .41 mag, .243 Win, 30-06, .38 special and .9 mm. I probably should load shot too considering how much time I spend on the clay range.

[briandg]

I was passionate about my shooting, and I grew up in a time when reloading was what shooters did. That's all. If you didn't mate your own handcrafted ammo, you were missing out on half of the experience.

Now, reloading costs are no great benefit unless you cite exotics. But those people out there who change their own oil will make their own nine mm.

[Sevens]

Now, reloading costs are no great benefit unless you cite exotics. But those people out there who change their own oil will make their own nine mm.

I can't really agree here. I don't even cast bullets and using quality plated bullets, I have my 9mm down to around $6 per 50rd box. I do have to buy components in bulk to keep my cost there, but I can't find quality factory ammo for less than around $10 or $11 per 50, either before shipping or tax. And the folks who are using lead bullets or cast their own bullets can slash the cost down significantly from my $6/50.

So that's approaching HALF price for 9mm ammo, and 9mm ammo is the cheapest center fire ammo really of anything available.

So the cost savings may not be -THE- reason I do it or many do it, but to say it's really not there? I just don't see it. It's a huge benefit, and as you get away from 9mm/.40/.45, it just climbs and climbs from there.